Porsche Grand Am Teams Unlucky In Montreal

Separate incidents for the #59 Brumos and #44 Magnus Racing Porsche meant that the two teams weren’t able to deliver their full potential at the Grand AM race in Montreal last weekend.

The event started well for both teams, with the Brumos car in particular showing strongly as it qualified on the front row of the GT category. A strong first stint by Andrew Davis meant the car was still in contention for class honour when he handed the driving duties over to team mate Leh Keen.

Keen however, had a tougher time of it, as he made contact with the #70 SpeedSource Mazda RX8. Officials deemed the incident to be avoidable contact and gave the #59 car a fifteen second stop and go time penalty, that dropped the car down the order.

Nevertheless, Keen rallied and was soon back within the top ten, but ultimately, time was against him and he finished fourth – ending Brumos’ run of podium finishes.

“Once again the Brumos Racing crew had our #59 Porsche 911 running great for the race. The start went as planned for the most part, and I was able to gap the cars behind me while hanging onto the leader. I knew we would be in for a battle, for the lead car seemed very quick. I did, however feel that our Porsche had a slight advantage for the long run,” Davis said.

“The crew performed flawlessly in the pits, but we were never able to fully recover from the stop and go penalty given after Leh’s unavoidable contact in the second corner. Leh drove like a man possessed for the rest of the race, and was able to claw his way back to a respectable 4th place finish.”

Meanwhile, the #44 car endured a similarly disappointing race. After qualifying seventh, John Potter gained two positions in the opening stint, handing over the driving duties to Andy Lally with the car in fifth place. However, Potter’s work was to be undone when Lally made hard contact with the second placed GT car. The impact was enough to damage the Porsche’s fragile radiator, and whilst the team were able to fix the car, it was classified in a disappointing eleventh place by the end of the race.

“Definitely a heartbreaking day,” said Potter. “We had a real shot. The guys gave us a fast car and the incident was just unfortunate. I have to give big credit to the guys though. They showed great preparation getting the radiator fixed in seven minutes.”